ARANI SERIES
Spark 43
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
LOVE THE RAINBOW, KNOW THE WATER DROPS
There is a widespread misunderstanding that Advaita Vedānta, by calling the world an illusion, looks down at the creation. The truth is far from it.
A physicist calls a rainbow an (optic) illusion but admires its beauty all the same. She draws the attention of her students to the water drops behind the rainbow, which are real.
The Advaitin likewise enthusiastically joins the affairs of the world but knows that Brahman beneath it to be the truth.
Not only the objects of the world, pleasing and distasteful, but also the pleasure and pain of the worldly life are an illusion. In fact, the experiencer (called the ego or the self) is an illusion, created by thought.
Brahman shines silently and in all grandeur behind all the names and forms of this universe. Ādi Shankara asks us to recognize the ‘vidyā-bhoomi’ (the ground of reality) where no divisions are valid, and dismiss the ‘avidyā-bhoomi’ (the frame of reference marked by erroneous perception) that hosts all the dualities. Even as the physicist establishes the reality of the water drops, say in a physics class, she, on one hand, dismisses the rainbow as regards its reality but happily joins her students to behold a rainbow after the class if there is one in the sky at that time!
So we must understand that the idea of calling the universe māyā or mithyā is in no way contempt or condemnation of any kind. It is rather the ultimate key to happiness, as we are fully relieved of our sense of gain or loss, victory or defeat, birth or death.
Even as there is greater clarity in us about the position of Advaita Vedānta with regard to the universe, we act in the world with increased sense of responsibility and with enhanced sensitivity.
Let’s love the rainbow but know the water drops beneath it!
Swāmi Chidānanda